Monday, October 9, 2017

TERROR TEE-VEE: A Countdown to Halloween (Day 9)

Christopher Lee's Dracula care of Basil Gogos.






THE STRAIN

When Dr. Ephraim Goodweather is called on by the CDC to investigate a viral outbreak that has killed everybody aboard an airplane, he discovers that it matches an ancient strain of vampirism.  It isn’t long before he and his allies are waging a war that holds humanity’s fate in its hands.

The most compelling character in the series is a Holocaust survivor by the name of Professor Abraham Setrakian who is the only man who knows what kind of vampire shit-storm is about to hit New York.  He has a history with these vamps.  He has sacrificed much to even be alive at this late date to even be able to face down this evil.



Based on a book series by Guillermo del Toro, these vampires are different from those we’ve seen before.  Sexless bloodsuckers with tentacles that shoot out from their necks like frog tongues who resemble Nosferatu more than Lugosi’s more human monster—these creatures are drones who follow the lead of their master with total disregard for their own existence.  These creatures are created when one of the ancients releases some of their worm-like hosts into a victim.

Lasting four seasons, the show takes on the rise of “The Master” and the fall of civilization from outbreak to conclusion as armies of vampires milk humans of their blood and babies while the resistance struggles to survive.  The story gets choppy in spots, but it finally comes to a satisfying conclusion (that differs much from the books) that wraps up the tale and leaves it open enough to come back.



Hulu owns these episodes on the web, but the web provides them in high quality to boot…
the best three episodes for the price of free:


“Night Zero”
Season 1, Episode 1
It launches the show with gusto—producing gross-out death, dark mysteries and proper horror as we begin to get the idea that our protagonists have stepped neck deep into the deep end of a tar pit.  Click the link below to view “Night Zero”…





“The Third Rail”
Season 1, Episode 11
takes our group of heroes and pits them underground in a hunt to kill The Master, so that all of the drone vamps left can’t coordinate and are, thus, easier to kill.  Unfortunately, things don’t go quite as planned…

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